Custom Bats Cricket Forum

Forum News and Suggestions => Forum Announcements => Topic started by: LEACHY48 on January 13, 2020, 07:15:16 PM

Title: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: LEACHY48 on January 13, 2020, 07:15:16 PM
Hey guys, just wanted to let everyone know that if you search for the forum on google and try to follow a link through google it will redirect you to a malware site, so just be careful!
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Mattsky on January 13, 2020, 07:31:39 PM
It's been doing this for ages. Bloody annoying. I think I mentioned it a while back.
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Psi on January 13, 2020, 07:44:49 PM
Yep, noticed that again this morning. I use a different browser now mostly.
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Buzz on January 13, 2020, 08:49:17 PM
Not sure what cookies you have stored on your phones, but I don't have this issue...
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: WalkingWicket37 on January 13, 2020, 09:32:03 PM
Not sure what cookies you have stored on your phones, but I don't have this issue...

I've not found it to be an issue on my phone, but can sometimes end up on a funny page if I open the forum through a Google search in incognito mode one a PC
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Kulli on January 13, 2020, 09:38:08 PM
The forums blocked at my work, literally the only page I’ve ever trained to access that has been!
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: SurreySam on January 13, 2020, 10:13:25 PM
Experienced it loads of times on Desktop.  Also had a lot of trouble registering last year (couple of months), all the questions were right and then one day it just finally accepted them.
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Canners on January 14, 2020, 12:46:20 PM
i get this all the bloody time i have to go back and search again and usually works the 3rd or 4th time of trying . This is on the google app on my iphone
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: jimmyca on September 05, 2021, 06:21:06 PM
Just to confirm this is still the case with results from google searches.
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Jimbo on September 05, 2021, 06:47:23 PM
Just to confirm this is still the case with results from google searches.

Only happens with my phone when I access via mobile data, not with home WiFi. Don't know if that might give the IT savvy a clue to the solution.
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Rez on September 25, 2022, 07:53:53 PM
It sounds like a file on the website hosting server has been compromised. Whoever administers the site needs to address this with the hosting platform which appears to be 123-Reg

Below, I've copied a response from within the thread in the link:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/3197253/link-to-website-redirects-to-spam-site?hl=en

bluequoll
Volunteer Contributor - Google Help Communities
Sep 21, 2019

If a link in Google Search Results redirects, but the website opens correctly using its URL in the browser address bar, the website has almost certainly been hacked with a conditional redirect.
 
The hack may not be in the website code itself, in which case you won't be able to see anything amiss there.
 
It's more likely that the hack is in a separate, but legitimate, file named .htaccess on the host server, in the same directory as your website code. Entries in the .htaccess file can control, among other things, basic redirect functionality. In the case of a conditional redirect hack, a malicious entry in the .htaccess can redirect traffic to another site based on the referrer (i.e., which web page the traffic is coming from). For instance, traffic may be redirected to a malicious site only if it's detected as coming from a Google Search results page.
 
In short, regardless of how this looks, it actually has nothing to do with Google Search results, and is not something that Google has any control over.
 
If you can't find, or don't have access to, the .htaccess file associated with your website, you'll need to talk with your hosting provider to help sort out the issue.
 
In any case, for specialized assistance with webmaster/website issues:
Visit the Search Console Help Center or
Ask in the Webmasters Help Community
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Rez on February 11, 2023, 10:25:20 AM
Is anyone ever going to sort this out? Really annoying when I forget and pretty sure this will put a huge number of people off visiting the site!

It clearly is the issue that I posted above. You can test it easily by searching for 'custom bat forum' in google and then another search engine like yahoo. The dodgy redirect is only from the google search return entries.
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: LEACHY48 on February 11, 2023, 10:46:06 AM
Probably not, been an issue for years and back then I got told it wasn't an issue lol
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Bungle on February 11, 2023, 11:50:36 AM
I wasn't able to actually register on this site because I thought it had shut down because of the redirects.
Title: Re: redirecting to a malware site
Post by: Rez on February 11, 2023, 01:51:05 PM
Probably not, been an issue for years and back then I got told it wasn't an issue lol

Don't know who you spoke to Leachy but they either couldn't be bothered or didn't have a clue :-)

It really shouldn't be that difficult. Whoever administers the webserver needs to search for the file named .htaccess and look for something similar to

[Redirect /path/to/old/file/old.html https://www.dodgysite.com/new/file/new.html (https://www.dodgysite.com/new/file/new.html)]

It is an issue and is not acceptable to be ignored as greatly affects the reputation of a website.